TDF News

Tour de France had cobbles on the dreaded menu of stage 4, which greatly reduced the size of the front group that made it to the line in Cambrai. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador thanks his teammates for their support including Peter Sagan, who managed to grab 3rd place behind stage winner Tony Martin after having dedicated his energy to the overall team objective.

Alberto Contador finished safely with good sensations on the demanding stage 4 of Tour de France and was quick to thank his team after crossing the finish line in Cambrai.

BMC Racing Team's Greg Van Avermaet finished fourth on Tuesday's cobblestone stage of the Tour de France while teammate Tejay van Garderen held onto his third place overall.

Van Garderen finished 24th and in the same time as 34 others in a group that was chasing solo winner Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step). The longest stage of the three-week event included seven sectors of cobblestones comprising 13.3 km of the 223.5-km race.

Van Avermaet, the third-place finisher in April in the cobbled classic of Paris-Roubaix, said it was a nervous day.

"Going into every cobblestone section, there was a fight for positioning because everybody wanted to have their leader in front.," Van Avermaet said. "We kept it pretty good in the front. We were always there, always ahead of the situation. I think we did a good job. I would have preferred to have have won the stage, but Martin chose a good moment."

Van Garderen said strong teamwork was behind his solid performance a year after he crashed on a rainy, cobblestoned stage of the Tour de France.

"I am just happy to have gotten through this stage unharmed," van Garderen said. "My team was incredible. They sat in the wind, on the front. They are just some hard-hitting head bangers. They paved the way for me all day. I barely had to lift a finger."

Past Swiss national road champion Michael Schär, who led the peloton onto the final section of pavé, said he was glad to put the day behind him.

"I don't think anybody really looks forward to these kind of stages because you know it is going to be madness," he said. "We had a really clear plan going into the race and a super experienced group of riders who have worked many years together. So that makes a big difference."

Schär said another difference was a reconnaissance session last Wednesday.

"You have to move up at the very last moment to be first into the sectors," he said. "If you move up too early, like a kilometer too early, the guys come around you and then you are in position 50. We knew exactly every tree, every little hill that was coming up and we moved up perfectly. That was a key point to the result today."

After the harrowing Fleche-Wallone feel of Stage 3, the riders will face another “mini-classic” integrated into this year’s Tour de France as Stage 4 travels 223.5kms from Seraing to Cambrai.

This stage is the longest of the Tour and is one of only two which exceed 200kms. In addition to the length, however, there are other tests in store for the riders.

First, there is a cat-4 climb at 53kms in Côte de la Citadelle de Namur. It’s 2kms long at 4.8%

There is also the intermediate sprint which occurs at 137kms in Havay (Quevy).

The bigger feature to the day, however, is a sequence of cobbles used in the Hell of the North, Paris- Roubaix. The first sector is between the climb and the sprint, but the last six are all in the leading 30kms. With over 13kms of this bumpy road, riders how are already nursing injuries will suffer. Lets just hope it doesn’t rain, further complicating matters.

It’s tough to predict a winner though certain Kristoff is no stranger to these roads. Nibali has experienced triumph on these roads, but the new yellow jersey wearer, Froome, experienced tragedy, crashing out on a similar stage last year. And of course, as we enter France, the French would love to see one of “their own” triumph. So, can Froome tame his nightmares of last year and maintain yellow? Or will the jersey once again switch hands………………

Passing through key Australian battlefield sites from World War 1, stage 5 of the 2015 Tour de France takes on special significance for ORICA-GreenEDGE and the nation as a whole.

To honour the 295,000 Australians who fought and 46,000 who sacrificed their lives on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918, ORICA-GreenEDGE will wear a commemorative armband, with the Australian Centenary logo, for the duration of the tomorrow’s (8 July) racing.

Fabian Cancellara was whisked off to the hospital for a CT scan shortly after he crossed the finish line of the crash-marred stage three at the Tour de France, and hours later the news confirmed the worst: two transverse process fractures in two vertebrae bones of the lower back.

It is the identical injury he sustained in E3 Harelbeke last March, but this time the L3 and L4 vertebrae on the right side were the culprits, not the L2 and L3 on the left side he injured in Harelbeke.